Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-19

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apply or sacrifice them, to squander OF
improvidently cast them away, would be
alike subversive of the interests of the
people and contrary to the plain dictates
of dlty, by which the state stands bound
in the conditions under which it holds
this public property, and for the fulfill.
ment of which its faith is pledged.
Looking upon the lands remaining. as 6
cession for the benefit of the special funds
to which they have been dedicated as 6
productive capital, available for immedi
ate use in lettering the fortunes and con.
ditions of the present generation, as well
as their posterity, by relieving them II
some measure from the bJrdens of op.
pressive tsxstion-a sale to actual set.
tiers, in conjunction with leases Of unsold
lands, has become the avowed policy OF
the state. But, as they clearly involve
antagbnistic principles, the great practi,
cal difficulty with which we are confront
ed is the adoption of complex system
by which each may be made to contribute
its best results to the public benefit.
The celebrated Edmond Burke, in re-
commenting that the forest lands OF the
British crown should be brought into
market and converted into private pro-
| J
following just and profound msxms of
political economy: The principal
revenue which | propose to draw from
these uncultivated wastes, is to spring
from the improvement and population of
the ktngGom-events infinitely more ad-
outrageous to the crown than the rents
of the best laIded estates VIII CHI it can
hold. | would throw them into the mass
lINfI Nr;l- TO irlo thnyr y,iI
come through the course of circulation,
end through the political secretions of
the state, into well regulated revenue"
The history of the landed system of the
United States furnishes the most con-
vincing proof of the value of this policy.
| Recognizing that the strength and
wealth OF the country consists not SO
much in the money to be eXacted as the
price of public lands, as in the increase
of the population and the cultivation of
the soil, and while regarding the public
lands as common fund, and seeking to
make what reasonably could be made of
them as source of revenue, it applied
its best wisdom to sell and settle them
as fast and as happily as possible-dis
posing of the soil in smaller, and still
smaller portions, with the view of en-
aiding every Industrious man in the cOun-
try, however p3or, to become q free
holder. In like manner, 1t has been the
policy of our state, from the earliest
settlement, to settle her domain with The
tillers of the soil and others who would
develop her resources; ever designing to
mske the settler the object of its foster
ing care. To this end, she gave first one
league and labor of land b heads of
families, and one-fourth # a league to
single men. This policy was con-
tinued, leSsening the amount as the
country was settled, until it was reduced
to 100 acres for heads IF families and
eighty acres for single men, always re-
curing, as a condition to the various
grants, settlement, cultivation and perma-
nent residence.
In the course Of time, however, our
ENTHUSIASTICALLY impatient at the
slow but steady operation Of these wise
laws, which had been successfully tested
by experlence-by improvident and reck-
less legislation, disposed of large bodies
to the SPECTATOR, and made enormous
donations to corporations, thus arresting
by law the eXtentionS of further settle
ment of vast areas-so contiguous, i'm
portant and yaluable-and as Just
cause of reproach to the state, by statu-
tory prohibition rendered it an inaccessi-
bic solitude, which pioneer settlers may
net legally disturb.
To lease land, and at the same time re-
serve the right to sellat at any time with
out the consent of the lessee, operates as
a snare and delusion to both the lessee
and settler, and messurably defeats both
sale and lease. Where there is reserva-
ton of the power of selling the lands to
others, regardless of all the lessee should
do in the way of improving his lessehold
and this, too, without compromising
him for his improvements, or reimburs-
ing him for the values swept away by the
absorption of his range and consequent
removal at an inauSpiCious season, with
possibly no place left to which he may go,
or the danger of becoming the victim of
d heartless eXtOrtiCn on the part of those
acting under the fraudulent guise of
actursl seltlers-we can hardly exDect
that prudent man would be willing 10
invest his means upon such treaCherous /
inducements. And yet this is the precise !
condition OF that law which would lease |
land with the reservation of the right of |
sale
1t is not an uncharitable suspicion to |
say that it is clear that those who do thus |
lease, do SO with the settled purpose of pro- |
tecting their cellar interests by the |
exercise of terrorism and lawless force, !
if necessary; and the apprehension of
this danger defeats and binders settle
ment by those who, in good faith. desire
to embrace the purposes of the law, by |
the selection of lands thus situated.
M better evidence could be required to
establish this proposition than is found
in the result of the sales made under the
act of 1883. In addition to tn s, we have
The experience of others, under the opera
lion of a similar system of land laws in
Iorce in New South Wales, Victoria and
where there are unlimited
areas, and where the laws, in one way
and another, have enabled individuals to
purchase the freehold of great tracts, or
% hold immense blocks on long lease
With very exclusive privileges. They were
llred from the government, averaging
.en shilllngs per square mile on long
eases, and the leases were granted with
certain reservations, chief among which
vas the right of any bona tide settler to i
choose for himself, and pay, by easy in
'tallments, for not more than 325 acres of ,
and. 1t was founo, however, that this 1
eatuTe was The prolific source of inter- ,
nlnaole and bitter contentious between I
he settler and the lessee, disturbing the +
'uollc peace ana retarding both sale and